Self contained office lease agreement

About this office lease

This is a comprehensive and easy to use business lease for letting the whole of a commercial office building to a single tenant.

This is a professionally drawn, very comprehensive lease with massive legal protection for the landlord including a long menu of “do’s” and “don’ts”.

This lease is not a compromise between the interests of the parties. It prefers the Landlords interest. We think that is the best start point. If you wish to make concessions to your tenant, that is fine, but we want you have those choices.

It includes service charge provisions to provide 100% recovery of service costs.

If you are letting for more than three years, you will need to register your completed lease. The address of the office is below. The staff at the registration office are helpful and the process is simple. You can do that yourself too.

However, the tenant must have taken legal advice from a solicitor. That is no reason why you should pay a solicitor $5,000 too. However, if you are concerned, you can still take your Net Lawman lease to your solicitor for advice in any area that worries you. We do not claim to replace solicitors but merely to empower you to do what legal you can do personally.

Similar business lease agreements

If you are letting an office building to multiple tenants (either by floor or by suite), you should use: Business lease: floor or suite of offices.

If the office is situated on a business park and you require provisions for service charge recovery, see another business lease version.

Key features

Plain English is used throughout except where it is necessary to use legal terms common in this field of law.

The key features of this template can be summarised as:

• standard guarantor
• options for transfer or assignment to another party
• sub-letting forbidden
• option to include a break clause for premature termination by the tenant
• a choice of options for rent reviews

The law in this office lease

Most commercial leases are governed by property laws which are similar from one state to another. The exception is retail leases, which are subject to state/territory retail lease law.

If the term of this lease is longer than three years it must be registered at the Land Title Office at:

Lease template contents

This commercial office lease is comprehensive, providing alternative choices for important decisions.

The contents include 24 provisions and 2 schedules covering:

• rent: period, amount, other payments, interest on overdue rent, periodic review
• condition and repair
• tenant's positive obligations
• restrictions on tenant: prohibited activities on the property
• signs and advertisements
• assignment of the lease
• indemnities by the tenant
• security deposit
• insurance
• access for landlord
• guarantor
• termination: default notice by landlord; provision for premature termination (a break clause)
• forfeiture
• stamp duty
• Schedule 1: rights reserved
• Schedule 2: draft agreement for a security deposit